This 8-channel composition is in response to the sketch Froanna by Wyndham Lewis. Considering the lines, colours, shapes, and shading of the sketch this composition uses close-up microphone recordings of chalk on paper with blue noise and electronic sounds to transport the listener to an abstract interpretation of the emotive content of the work… a portrait of Lewis’ wife, Froanna. Follow the gestural strokes of chalk on paper… What do you hear? What do you see?

… a perpetual gaze…
… a clasped posture…
… a wife who was hidden from view…
… intensity…
… a sense of strain…
… an unfolding from the colour…
… blue…

[i-24]

Sketching Froanna was realized in 2019 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (England, UK) and premiered on May 14, 2019 during the Nocturnes: A Woman Refigured event as part of the Barber Lates series in Birmingham. The piece was commissioned by The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

Composition

• 2019, Electroacoustic Music Studios — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)

Premiere

• May 14, 2019, Nocturnes: A Woman Refigured, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts — University of Birmingham – Photograph Room, Birmingham (England, UK)

Mastering

• January 20 – 26, 2024, Adaq Khan • London (England, UK)